Bonile Khanyi
Grade 12 learners have no need to panic about a planned strike by the National Taxi Association (NTA) on Wednesday, the Gauteng Department of Education said.
According to media reports, the taxi association warned commuters to make alternative plans on Wednesday ahead of a planned national strike.
NTA spokesperson Theo Malele said about 10 000 members will be attending the march.
Members are expected to meet in Pretoria where they will first march to the Department of Transport offices before heading to the Union Buildings to hand out their list of grievances.
“Our plan is to meet at the Marabastad taxi rank and bus depot around 8am on Wednesday morning. We will then be marching to the department of transport to handover a memorandum of our grievances and later on, march to the presidency at the Union buildings to hand over our grievances there,” said Malele.
Malele accused Transport Minister Joe Maswanganyi of being arrogant and refusing to engage with the industry.
“We want to deal with the arrogance of the minister who refuses to give attention to a host of grievances in the taxi industry. We have issues with the new Aarto (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offences) bill and the failed taxi recapitalisation process, because the way in which it has been configured, it not favourable to the taxi industry,” Malele said.
Speaking to Inside Education on Monday, the department’s Steve Mabona confirmed that there’s a contingency plan in place for exams should the strike go on as planned.
“Should some learners arrive late for their exams, all chief invigilators will know how to manage their examination and learners will be given an opportunity to write their exams on the day,” said Mabona.
Mabona appealed to parents and learners to make alternative means to reach their centres and avoid being affected by the taxi strike.
“We appeal to all the parents who will be dropping off their kids that they make alternative arrangements or to leave earlier than usual, to avoid delays,” said Mabona.
More than 150 000 Grade 12’s in Gauteng are expected to write English paper 2 on Wednesday morning.
